This reeks of a PR stunt to drum up publicity and attention...

Disney and Sony said:

There's a goldmine of content in this article...

There was criticism of the realistic violence in Joker, especially in the wake of so many mass shootings, and a Universal release, The Hunt, was actually scrapped this summer over similar violence concerns. What made The Hunt unreleasable and Joker a $900 million hit?

LANGLEY We took The Hunt from the release calendar out of sensitivity for the mass shootings that happened over the course of that weekend and we were in a window where we were heavily marketing. It later got conflated with it being about the movie's subject matter. But remember, nobody has seen this movie outside of the studio.

EMMERICH There were a lot of misunderstandings around the history of the tragic shooting in Aurora, [Colorado, in 2012,] which happened at a Batman film. And we were certainly supersensitive to it [and the tragedy for the victims and their loved ones]. But that film and that shooting had no connection in any way to the Joker character. So we had to judge our film on its own merits. A lot of the social media comments around the film were by people who hadn't seen the film and didn't know what it was. We looked at the film really closely and did feel that it was a great film. That it was a piece of art. And we didn't think it would inspire violence. We took it to Venice, where it won the Golden Lion. And we felt comfortable releasing the film.

@tmp3

OT: Honestly what the [frick] is this game?

I’m happy for fans of this version who’ll be able to see him again, but after FFH, I never want to see a MCU Spidey film again.

Unless the trailer indicates a major change in direction, I’m not watching it

I don't care how it happened, I'm just glad it happened. You both better make sure Spidey stays, He's too ingrained in the MCU for him to go away without there being a massive hole. So both of you play nice and make sure he sticks around.


OT: I just saw the lighthouse over the weekend, and it was [frick]ing amazing. Can't wait to see Battinson, He's going to kill it if this movie is anything to go by.

"...news cycles and the rhythm of negotiations do not necessarily overlap. ...We would have gotten there, and the news got ahead of some things."

So, it was a negotiation behind closed doors that got leaked to the public, which both companies tried to manipulate (but we all remember Sony's particularly stupid gambits like "Feige is too busy"), which all played really terrible for Sony (even if Disney didn't look particularly good), until they decided no más and ended the dance.

Is that about right?

Well, sure, whatever gets you there, I guess. If this is where "they would have gotten" anyway, then the whole exercise just made everybody look bad. Except the actual people making the movies and the actual fans who enjoy them who just wanted to keep a good thing going.